Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) served as the 16th President of the United States from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through its greatest internal crisis, the American Civil War, preserving the Union and ending slavery. Before his election in 1860 as the first Republican president, Lincoln had been a country lawyer, an Illinois state legislator, a member of the United States House of Representatives, and twice an unsuccessful candidate for election to the U.S. Senate. As an outspoken opponent of the expansion of slavery in the United States, Lincoln won the Republican Party nomination in 1860 and was elected president later that year. His tenure in office was occupied primarily with the defeat of the secessionist Confederate States of America in the American Civil War. He introduced measures that resulted in the abolition of slavery, issuing his Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and promoting the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Six days after the large-scale surrender of Confederate forces under General Robert E. Lee, Lincoln became the first American president to be assassinated.

Lincoln had closely supervised the victorious war effort, especially the selection of top generals, including Ulysses S. Grant. Historians have concluded that he handled the factions of the Republican Party well, bringing leaders of each faction into his cabinet and forcing them to cooperate. Lincoln successfully defused the Trent affair, a war scare with Britain late in 1861. Under his leadership, the Union took control of the border slave states at the start of the war. Additionally, he managed his own reelection in the 1864 presidential election.

Copperheads and other opponents of the war criticized Lincoln for refusing to compromise on the slavery issue. Conversely, the Radical Republicans, an abolitionist faction of the Republican Party, criticized him for moving too slowly in abolishing slavery. Even with these opponents, Lincoln successfully rallied public opinion through his rhetoric and speeches; his Gettysburg Address (1863) became an iconic symbol of the nation's duty. At the close of the war, Lincoln held a moderate view of Reconstruction, seeking to speedily reunite the nation through a policy of generous reconciliation. Lincoln has consistently been ranked by scholars as one of the greatest of all U.S. Presidents.

Early political career and military service
Lincoln began his political career in March 1832 at age 23 when he announced his candidacy for the Illinois General Assembly. He was esteemed by the residents of New Salem, but he didn't have an education, powerful friends, or money. The centerpiece of his platform was the undertaking of navigational improvements on the Sangamon River. Before the election he served as a captain in a company of the Illinois militia during the Black Hawk War, although he never saw combat. Lincoln returned from the militia after a few months and was able to campaign throughout the county before the August 6 election. At 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m), he was tall and "strong enough to intimidate any rival." At his first political speech, he grabbed a man accosting a supporter by his "neck and the seat of his trousers", and threw him. When the votes were counted, Lincoln finished eighth out of thirteen candidates (only the top four were elected), but he did manage to secure 277 out of the 300 votes cast in the New Salem precinct.

US Postage, 1959 issue, depicting the young Abe Lincoln.In 1834, he won an election to the state legislature. He was labeled a Whig, but ran a bipartisan campaign. He then decided to become a lawyer, and began teaching himself law by reading Commentaries on the Laws of England. Admitted to the bar in 1837, he moved to Springfield, Illinois, that April, and began to practice law with John T. Stuart, Mary Todd's cousin, who let Lincoln have the run of his law library while studying to be a lawyer. With a reputation as a formidable adversary during cross-examinations and closing arguments, Lincoln became an able and successful lawyer. In 1841, Lincoln entered law practice with William Herndon, whom Lincoln thought "a studious young man". He served four successive terms in the Illinois House of Representatives as a representative from Sangamon County, affiliated with the Whig party.In 1837, he and another legislator declared that slavery was "founded on both injustice and bad policy" the first time he had publicly opposed slavery. In the 1835–1836 legislative session he'd voted to restrict suffrage to whites only. He would later say[citation needed] that he had been against slavery since he was a boy, but being labelled an abolitionist was "political suicide" in Sangamon County in those years, and so he chose his words carefully when discussing the issue publicly.

Republican politics 1854–1860
Lincoln returned to politics in response to the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854), which expressly repealed the limits on slavery's extent as established by the Missouri Compromise (1820). Illinois Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, the most powerful man in the Senate, proposed popular sovereignty as the solution to the slavery impasse, and incorporated it into the Kansas–Nebraska Act. Douglas argued that in a democracy the people should have the right to decide whether to allow slavery in their territory, rather than have such a decision imposed on them by the national Congress.

Lincoln in 1860In the October 16, 1854, "Peoria Speech",Lincoln outlined his position on slavery that he would repeat over the next six years on the route to the presidency.

“ [The Act has a] declared indifference, but as I must think, covert real zeal for the spread of slavery, I cannot but hate it. I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world — enables the enemies of free institutions, with plausibility, to taunt us as hypocrites — causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity, and especially because it forces so many really good men amongst ourselves into an open war with the very fundamental principles of civil liberty — criticizing the Declaration of Independence, and insisting that there is no right principle of action but self-interest.”

According to a newspaper account of the speech, Lincoln spoke with "a thin high-pitched falsetto voice of much carrying power, that could be heard a long distance in spite of the hustle and bustle of the crowd ... [with] the accent and pronunciation peculiar to his native state, Kentucky."

In late 1854, Lincoln decided to run for the United States Senate as a Whig. Despite leading in the first six rounds of voting in the state legislature, Lincoln instructed his backers to vote for Lyman Trumbull to prevent pro-Nebraska candidate Joel Aldrich Matteson from winning. Trumbull beat Matteson in the tenth round of voting. The Whigs had been irreparably split by the Kansas-Nebraska Act. "I think I am a Whig, but others say there are not Whigs, and I am an abolitionist, even though I do no more than oppose the expansion of slavery" he said. Drawing on remnants of the old Whig party, and on disenchanted Free Soil, Liberty, and Democratic party members, he was instrumental in forging the shape of the new Republican Party. At the Republican convention in 1856, Lincoln placed second in the contest to become the party's candidate for Vice-President.

In 1857–58, Douglas broke with President Buchanan, leading to a fight for control of the Democratic Party. Some eastern Republicans even favored the reelection of Douglas in 1858, since he had led the opposition to the Lecompton Constitution, which would have admitted Kansas as a slave state. Accepting the Republican nomination for Senate in 1858, Lincoln delivered his famous speech: "'A house divided against itself cannot stand.'(Mark 3:25) I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other." The speech created an evocative image of the danger of disunion caused by the slavery debate, and rallied Republicans across the north.

Presidency and the Civil War
With the emergence of the Republicans as the nation's first major sectional party by the mid-1850s, the old Second Party System collapsed and a realignment created the Third Party System. It became the stage on which sectional tensions were played out. Although little of the West–the focal point of sectional tensions– was fit for cotton cultivation, Southern secessionists read the political fallout as a sign that their power in national politics was rapidly weakening. The slave system had been buttressed by the Democratic Party, which was increasingly seen by anti-slavery elements as representing a more pro-Southern position that unfairly permitted the Slave Power to prevail in the nation's territories and to dominate national policy before the Civil War. Yet the Democrats suffered a significant reverse in the electoral realignment of the mid-1850s; they lost the dominance they had achieved over the Whig Party and, indeed, were the minority party in most of the northern states. The 1854 election was a Realigning election or "critical election" that saw a realignment of voting patterns. Abraham Lincoln's election was a watershed in the balance of power of competing national and parochial interests and affiliations.

Gettysburg Address
Although the Battle of Gettysburg was a Union victory, it was also the bloodiest battle of the war and dealt a blow to Lincoln's war effort. As the Union Army decreased in numbers due to casualties, more soldiers were needed to replace the ranks. Lincoln's 1863 military drafts were considered "odious" among many in the north, particularly immigrants. The New York Draft Riots of July 1863 were the most notable manifestation of this discontent. Writing to Lincoln in September 1863, the Governor of Pennsylvania, Andrew Gregg Curtin, warned that political sentiments were turning against Lincoln and the war effort:

If the election were to occur now, the result would be extremely doubtful, and although most of our discreet friends are sanguine of the result, my impression is, the chances would be against us. The draft is very odious in the State ... the Democratic leaders have succeeded in exciting prejudice and passion, and have infused their poison into the minds of the people to a very large extent, and the changes are against us.

Therefore, in the fall of 1863, Lincoln's principal aim was to sustain public support for the war effort. This goal became the focus of his address at the Gettysburg battlefield cemetery on November 19.

The Gettysburg Address is one of the most quoted speeches in United States history. It was delivered at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on the afternoon of Thursday, November 19, 1863, during the American Civil War, four and a half months after the Union armies defeated those of the Confederacy at the decisive Battle of Gettysburg. Abraham Lincoln's carefully crafted address, secondary to other presentations that day, came to be regarded as one of the greatest speeches in American history. In just over two minutes, Lincoln invoked the principles of human equality espoused by the Declaration of Independence and redefined the Civil War as a struggle not merely for the Union, but as "a new birth of freedom" that would bring true equality to all of its citizens, and that would also create a unified nation in which states' rights were no longer dominant. Beginning with the now-iconic phrase, Four score and seven years ago ..., Lincoln referred to the events of the Civil War and described the ceremony at Gettysburg as an opportunity not only to consecrate the grounds of a cemetery, but also to dedicate the living to the struggle to ensure that "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth".

亞伯拉罕·林肯（Abraham Lincoln，1809年－1865年），美國政治家，第16任總統(tǒng)（任期：1861年3月4日－1865年4月15日），也是首位共和黨籍總統(tǒng)。在其總統(tǒng)任內(nèi)，美國爆發(fā)了內(nèi)戰(zhàn)，史稱南北戰(zhàn)爭。林肯擊敗了南方分離勢力，廢除了奴隸制度，維護了國家的統(tǒng)一。但就在內(nèi)戰(zhàn)結(jié)束后不久，林肯不幸遇刺身亡。他是第一位遭到刺殺的美國總統(tǒng)，更是一位出身貧寒的偉大總統(tǒng)。

簡介
1809年2月12日，林肯出生在肯塔基州哈丁縣一個清貧的家庭，父親是位鞋匠，用他自己的話說，他的童年是“一部貧窮的簡明編年史”。小時候，他幫助家里搬柴、提水、做農(nóng)活等。 父母是英國移民的后裔，他們以種田和打獵為生。1816年，林肯全家遷至印第安納州西南部，開荒種地為生。9歲的時候，林肯的母親去世了。 　　

一年后，父親與一位賢惠的女人結(jié)婚。繼母慈祥勤勞，對待前妻的子女如同己出。林肯也敬愛后母，一家人生活得和睦幸福。由于家境貧窮，林肯受教育的程度不高。為了維持家計，少年時的林肯當(dāng)過俄亥俄河上的擺渡工、種植園的工人、店員和木工。18歲那年，身材高大(186cm)的林肯為一個船主所雇傭，與人同乘一條平底駁船順俄亥俄河而下，航行千里到達奧爾良。 　　

在25歲以前，林肯沒有固定的職業(yè)，四處謀生。成年后，他成為一名當(dāng)?shù)赝恋販y繪員，因精通測量和計算，常被人們請去解決地界糾紛。在艱苦的勞作之余，林肯始終是一個熱愛讀書的青年，他夜讀的燈火總要閃爍到很晚很晚。在青年時代，林肯通讀了莎士比亞的全部著作，讀了《美國歷史》，還讀了許多歷史和文學(xué)書籍。他通過自學(xué)使自己成為一個博學(xué)而充滿智慧的人。在一場政治集會上他第一次發(fā)表了政治演說。由于抨擊黑奴制，提出一些有利于公眾事業(yè)的建議，林肯在公眾中有了影響，加上他具有杰出的人品，1834年他被選為州議員。 　　

兩年后，林肯通過自學(xué)成為一名律師，不久又成為州議會輝格黨領(lǐng)袖。1834年8月，25歲的林肯當(dāng)選為州議員開始了自己的政治生涯同時管理鄉(xiāng)間郵政所，也從事土地測量，并在友人的幫助下鉆研法律。幾年后，他成為一名律師。積累了州議員的經(jīng)驗之后，1846年，他當(dāng)選為美國眾議員。1847年，林肯作為輝格黨的代表，參加了國會議員的競選，獲得了成功，第一次來到首都華盛頓。在此前后，關(guān)于奴隸制度的爭論，成了美國政治生活中的大事。在這場爭論中，林肯逐漸成為反對蓄奴主義者。他認(rèn)為奴隸制度最終應(yīng)歸于消滅，首先應(yīng)該在首都華盛頓取消奴隸制。代表南方種植園主利益的蓄奴主義者則瘋狂地反對林肯。1850年，美國的奴隸主勢力大增，林肯退出國會，繼續(xù)當(dāng)律師。 　　

1860年，林肯成為共和黨的總統(tǒng)候選人，11月，選舉揭曉，以200萬票當(dāng)選為美國第16任總統(tǒng)，但在奴隸主控制的南部10個州，他沒有得到1張選票。 大選揭曉后，南方種植園主制造，發(fā)動了叛變。南方11個州先后退出聯(lián)邦，宣布成立“美利堅諸州同盟”，并制訂了新的憲法，選舉總統(tǒng)。 1861年4月，南方叛亂武裝首先向北方挑起戰(zhàn)爭。林肯號召民眾為維護聯(lián)邦統(tǒng)一而戰(zhàn)。 　　

內(nèi)戰(zhàn)爆發(fā)初期，由于南方種植園主蓄謀叛亂已久，而林肯政府試圖妥協(xié)，在戰(zhàn)爭中節(jié)節(jié)失利。首都華盛頓受到威脅。為扭轉(zhuǎn)戰(zhàn)局，1862年5月林肯政府頒布了《宅地法》，其中規(guī)定，美國公民交付10美元即可在西部得到160英畝的土地，連續(xù)耕種5年就可成為其主人。9月，又頒布《解放黑奴宣言》，廢除了黑奴制，規(guī)定叛亂各州的黑奴是自由人。戰(zhàn)爭形式驟然改觀。 　　

1863年夏，北方軍隊轉(zhuǎn)入反攻。1865年，南方叛軍向北方軍隊投降，持續(xù)4年之久的內(nèi)戰(zhàn)以北方勝利告終。1865年4月14日晚，內(nèi)戰(zhàn)剛剛結(jié)束，林肯在華盛頓的福特劇院遇刺身亡。5月4日，林肯葬于橡樹嶺公墓。林肯領(lǐng)導(dǎo)美國人民維護了國家統(tǒng)一，廢除了奴隸制，為資本主義的發(fā)展掃除了障礙，促進了美國歷史的發(fā)展，一百多年來，受到美國人民的尊敬。由于林肯在美國歷史上所起的進步作用，人們稱贊他為“新時代國家統(tǒng)治者的楷?！?。